


Storytime

by locusinbloom (Fractual_Visions)



Category: Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Loki is good with kids, Odin's A+ Parenting, Storytelling, community: naughtylokiconfessions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-02-16
Packaged: 2018-01-12 15:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fractual_Visions/pseuds/locusinbloom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Done for the confession: I like to think that before Loki was evil, he would read children's books to the children of Asgard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Storytime

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the [Naughty Loki Confessions](http://naughtylokiconfessions.tumblr.com) blog of which I am a devoted follower.
> 
> Story inspired by this: <http://randis.deviantart.com/art/Storytelling-198658513>

Loki sat cross-legged on the floor in a dimly lit room near the kitchens. Before him in a circle sat Ægileif, Áfastr, and Hildibjörg. They had identical blond hair and stared up at him with wide and eager eyes. Their soft mouths hung slack-jawed in anticipation.

"You know why you are here," he intoned, met with nods, "And you must keep what we do here secret."

Nods.

"Swear it."

"We swear," their voices echoed together.

Loki grinned. He reached into his pocket and drew forth a slim volume bound with ribbon. He opened to the first page.

Loki brought his hands over the creamy white page and an illusion sprang from its surface. It was of a vast cragged mountain and a tiny figure climbing its heights.

"As it happened in times past, a trickster went on a journey."

~~~

He traveled to distant Svartálfaheimr, home of the Dwarves. They were master craftsmen and women. They were of prodigious height and colossal strength and terrible mein. Always they live under the ground in glorious vast caverns, terrified of the sun which has the power to slay them.

The Trickster entered the caverns and bowed himself to the Court.

"Hail and well met. I am of the Æsir come from Asgard to ask a boon of the mighty dvergr!"

"What would you ask of us?" Their King demanded.

"I would have hair fashioned for a fair lady who was unjustly shorn."

"Let it be done."

Therefore, the Trickster descended into the craft halls with the dwarf Ivaldi, whose sons set their hammers to the task. The forges burn day and night in those halls and the fire is as the hells of Múspellsheimr. It singes the flesh and parches the spirit. Yet the Trickster was determined and remained to see his quest fulfilled.

~~~

Loki held the book out on the flat of his palms so they could feel the heat radiating from the page.

~~~

His quick wits and charming tongue made him swiftly the friend of many who dwelt there: Ivaldi and his sons; Brokkr and Sindri, brothers and rivals of Ivaldi; many others besides.

They fashioned the hair. Then, out of friendship, they made also that mighty spear Gungnir which rests now in Odin All-father’s hand and that sleek vessal, Skidbladnir, large enough to bear many over the most unfavorable waters, small enough to fit in the pocket of a lady.

The Trickster should perhaps have left, but his spirit stirred with merriment and mischief.

~~~

Ægileif’s eyes lit up. “I know who the trickster was!” She said. “It was—”

Loki held a figure to his lips and smiled. “Nay, none of that. This is a room of secrets and hidden knowledge and here we will hold our peace on such knowledge.”

She hardly looked chastened, but she did close her mouth.

~~~

He turned himself to Brokkr and Sindri. He showed them the treasures.

"Are they not beautiful," he praised. "See how Gungnir glistens with power. How this hair is the fairest a lady has ever worn. Is ever a ship as useful as Skidbladnir?"

"They are skillfully crafted," the Brothers acknowledged.

"You are no mean craftsmen," the Trickster smiled, "but perhaps such skill is beyond you. Could you make three treasures to rival these?"

"We do not care for such games," they said, but the Trickster could see their lies for the jealousy beneath.

"Come. It is a contest harmless enough. If I lose, you will gift me with your work. And if you prevail, what would you ask of me?"

"You are a friend and, win or fail, we will give you our labors," Sindri accepted. "But if you lose, we will have your head."

The Trickster was ever cunning, sly, and reckless, but never wise. He clasped their hands and the magic worked its oath.

~~~

"But how?" Hildibjörg demanded.

"Seiðr is a living thing," Loki cautioned her. "It gives, but it requires back, and it is never fooled. You may take from it prophecy, blessing, curse, illusion, disguise, travel, or wrinkles in the fabric of ontography, but if you vow by it… it will bind you."

"What is ontography?" Áfastr asked.

"Hush. Let me read!"

~~~

Brokkr and Sindri took to the forge. Sindri hammered while Brokkr minded the bellows. The Trickster became a fly to sting them as they worked. He rose welts and made Sindri’s eye to bleed. It was to no avail. They forged three great workings.

The first was Gullinbursti, a golden-haired boar who gleamed in the dark and raced faster than any horse, upon the earth or air or water. The second was Draupnir, the perpetual ring which ninth night gives forth eight identical gold rings. The third was forged of a terrible and fearsome iron, found nowhere in all the Nine Realms but in this working. It was that mighty hammer Mjollnir, whose name is is Lightning and whose strike is Thunder, all powerful and ever faithful.

It is true that the last of these was marred. The handle was shorter than the dwarves desired. Still, no challenge could be made that these were the greater of the six.

The Trickster fled to Asgard with his prizes.

There he gave freely everything his quest had earned. To the Lady Sif, her hair. Mjollnir to Thor. Humbly to Odin, Gungnir and Draupnir. To the benevolent Freyr of the Vanir, Gullinbursti and Skidbladnir.

The Dwarves came to Asgard to claim their prize.

As he would not come willing to their knives, they appealed to Odin. Only Odin had the power to rend the oath and release the Trickster from its bonds. To Odin the Trickster came also, seeking this release.

Odin, pleased enough to keep Gungnir and Draupnir, deemed the bargain rightly struck and was also pleased to give up the Trickster to his fate.

~~~

Loki felt a bitter smile in his heart, but it did not touch his face. He turned the page with some little more force than the paper required.

~~~

He was brought in chains before the Dwarves and they made ready to destroy him. Yet when they brought their swords to bear, he opened his mouth and fought with the only weapon left to him.

"My Lord Dwarves! Perhaps you take unjustly? For your blades are against my neck. You are honourable and are not thieves. Will you take my neck when we bargained merely for my head?"

Sindri and Brokkr laughed heartily. “You are a craftsman! But with wits instead of iron or cloth and you are a master. Well enough! You have yielded your head and we are satisfied to leave it attached.”

"We must still punish you,” Brokkr added, “to teach you not to play tricks with dvergr."

This they did. Then the dwarves returned to Skidbladnir with good will in their hearts.

~~~

Loki smiled broadly and closed the book with a resounding snap. He tossed it lightly into the invisible realm, because he knew the magic delighted them. He laughed merrily.

"Thus Loki Silvertongue preserved his life," had his mouth sewn shut, “and sits before you today.”

They oooo’d and giggled and clapped.

It was a magic of a different sort and here an audience who did not scorn his tricks. Loki took Áfastr’s hand. He was the youngest and would need guided back to his mother’s arms. The trust in their eyes soothed something dark in Loki’s soul and that was why, despite his professed dislike of children, he returned week after week, sometimes to large crowds, sometimes to small, to weave his tales of monsters and heroes and mayhem before their wide and enchanted eyes.


End file.
